AI can Identify Fakes on Ebay, says Scientists!
May 9 2024
Picture: The Guardian
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
An intriguing article came out this week explaining that 'authentication specialists' using AI technology have been able to sniff out 40 counterfeit paintings on Ebay. This include a Forest With a Stream, purportedly by Monet, being offered on the website for $599,000.
According to the article in The Guardian:
Dr Carina Popovici, a specialist in authenticating artwork, said she applied cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology to pictures advertised on the online platform and was shocked to discover that many had a “high probability” of being “not authentic”. [...]
“We looked today and we downloaded some images, and there were fakes all over the place. Everything that we have analysed turns out to be not real art, a negative probability with 95% or so. I’m sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg.”
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I'm yet to hear of any serious collector of Monet buying pictures from Ebay, so I'm not quite sure what the point is of training a computer telling us things that any reasonable person can judge using their eyes. But, as the saying goes, caveat emptor.
